Biography

'Dedicated to more than 230 Guernsey sailors, soldiers and airmen who made the supreme sacrifice during the Second World War.' A list of the Guernsey servicemen and women whose biographies and accounts of their wartime experiences, often accompanied by photographs, are covered in this book by Richard Allisette, published by the Guernsey Press in 1985. There are copies in the Priaulx Library.

From The Star, Guernsey, Tuesday, July 18, 1944. 'Grand old man of St Peter Port began at 1/- a week. Originator of Organised Amusements.' By a ‘Star’ reporter. The photograph shows Alfred I Le Patourel's yacht, the 'Naughty Girl', and is from the Guernsey Photographic Archive at the Priaulx Library.

Oldest inhabitant looks back. Just on a century of memories. By A Press Reporter, November 1948. 'We really couldn’t make up our minds whether the tomato was a fruit or a vegetable.’

This November it will be 100 years since the first publication of a Rupert Bear story in the Daily Express newspaper. The intrepid little bear made his debut on November 8 1920; not a comic-strip, not a cartoon, but a ‘drawing’. Newsprint was short, and his creators were limited to one frame a day, either one large panel or a row of four small drawings. Occasionally the story was written in prose with a little marginal decoration. Rupert Bear was the invention of Mary Tourtel, a book illustrator, who worked on Rupert until he was handed over to Alfred Bestall in 1935. She was born Mary Caldwell in Canterbury, Kent, in 1874. Her father and brother were celebrated stained-glass artists and stonemasons who were associated with Canterbury Cathedral for many years, while another brother moved to South Africa, where he became a well-known painter of animals. Mary went to art school and became a professional illustrator, producing her first books in 1897. She died in 1948 and is buried with her husband in Canterbury. It is through her husband, Herbert Bird Tourtel, that Rupert Bear comes to be linked to Guernsey.

'Crew landed on Lihou island after ship had been sunk by U-boat.'  An article by Carel Toms from the Guernsey Star of 27 December, 1951, in the Priaulx Library Newspaper Collection.

My school years at Elizabeth College, by Jean Hugo (1894-1984), from his autobiographical work, Le Regard de la mémoire, Paris: Actes Sud, 1983. Fond memories of Guernsey and characters such as 'Soapy Sam' and 'Peewee' are expressed in painterly language by the artist and great-grandson of Victor Hugo, who was a boarder at Elizabeth College. The illustration is of a drawing made by Jean's stepfather, René-Georges Hermann-Paul (1874-1940), of Jean, his mother Pauline, and the valet de chambre arriving for Jean's first term at Elizabeth College in 1907. This drawing was sold at Christie's, Paris, in 2012.By Dinah Bott. From the French.

Victor Hugo's granddaughter Jeanne (1869-1941) was the apple of his eye. She knew Guernsey well. She married a childhood friend, the controversial author Léon Daudet (1867-1942), who had plenty to say about Victor Hugo - very little of it complimentary. The marriage did not last long.By Dinah Bott.

Paul Stapfer, from his memoirs of his time in Guernsey with Victor Hugo, as reported in TP's Weekly, February 22, 1906.

Hennet de Kesler and Victor Hugo dans le jardin d’hiver/in the conservatory, by Edmond Bacot (between 1858-1862), from the collection of Paris Musées, Maison de Victor Hugo, Hauteville HouseBy Dinah Bott.

A philanthropist and island patriot, whose career, along with his childhood friend Frederick Mansell Allès, is ‘an illustration of the power of faith, hard work, and perseverance’ [Henri Boland, 1904.] The portrait is attributed to Frank Brookes and is in the collection of the Guernsey Museums and Art Galleries.